pickThis was such an amazing book, the characters are so unique and well defined, you can't help but love them in spite of their flaws (or because of them). Though it's a very long book, it is interesting enough to keep you circling back.
1 like
I fratelli Karamazov | 
pickThis was such an amazing book, the characters are so unique and well defined, you can't help but love them in spite of their flaws (or because of them). Though it's a very long book, it is interesting enough to keep you circling back.
β'What is hell?' I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.β
βAnd in the very depths of that degradation I begin a hymn of praise. Let me be accursed. Let me be vile and base, only let me kiss the hem of the veil in which my God is shrouded. Though I may be following the devil,β
βCrossing himself [...] he turned resolutely in the direction of his terrible lady.β
βI expect [...] the repayment of love with love. Otherwise I am incapable of loving anyone.β
βIt's impossible, I think, for the devils to forget to drag me down to hell with their hooks when I die.β
The Matryoshka Bros and I are feeling like we deserve one of these stickers. π
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BookMarathon
#hashtagbrigade
@BarkingMadRead
I‘m embarking on a journey into #russianliterature.
I haven‘t read a lot of #classics outside of the Bronte sisters, but I‘m at an age now where I‘m constantly asking myself questions about life, love, good/evil, morality, etc. So I‘m seeking out novels that wrestle with these questions.
I‘m starting with #thebrotherskaramazov and then plan to move on to #annakarenina π.
Any others you all recommend? Any advice or thoughts are welcome. βΊοΈ
Couldn‘t resist these beautiful matryoshka dolls in Belgium!! #hashtagbrigade @Aimeesue (the smallest one got cut out of the pic)
I‘m at a monastery in Bulgaria, called the Rila Monastery, and this mural on their church reminded me of a couple scenes in #thebros I‘m going to tag the entire #hashtagbrigade so I don‘t miss anyone π€£feel free to ignore this if you didn‘t read along with us
pickIn the end I enjoyed the premise and loved the trial scenes, but this book just meanders and so much of it contemplates religion and I just π₯±... but, overall, glad I read it & can cross this off my list of classics tbr π
Epilogue C3
When they began to fill in the grave, he suddenly began to point worriedly at the falling earthβ¦and he suddenly fell quiet. At that point they reminded him that he must crumble the crust of bread, and he grew terribly agitated, whipped out the crust and began to break it in his fingers, throwing the morsels about the little grave: βNow come flying, little birds, now come flying, little sparrows!‘ he muttered, worriedly.
Epilogue, C2
βWell, so this is what I have decided, Alyosha, listen!‘ he began again, having suppressed his excitement. βGrusha and I will go there β and at once we shall till the land, work, with the wild bears, in solitude, somewhere as far away as possible. After all, there too there will be a place that is far away!"
#MatryoshkaBros
E3: the funeral #thisistheend ?!? #ifeelcheated #cliffhangerending #thatpoorfamilythough #wedidit #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
Epilogue, 1
On the fifth day after Mitya‘s trial, very early in the morning, Alyosha arrived at Katerina Ivanovna‘s house in order to come to a final arrangement concerning a certain important matter and, in addition, with an errand to discuss with her. She sat and talked with him in that same room where once she had received Grushenka; near by, in the next room, Ivan Fyodorovich lay in acute fever and unconscious.
#MatryoshkaBros
B12C14
Up aloft, in the gallery, in the very furthest corner there resounded a piercing woman‘s wail: it was Grushenka. She had earlier gone to someone with entreaties, and had been readmitted to the chamber before the onset of the judicial pleadings. Mitya was led away.
#MatryoshkaBros
E2: drama in the hospital #dmitryisill #katyacomesandtheymakeup #Garrivesandtheclawscomeout #dmitryiswillingtoescape #eventhoughamericasucks π #staytuned #almostthere #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
E1: the aftermath #ivanisill #katyaiscaringforhim #theyhatchedanescapeplan #betterbreakouttheritahayworthposter #willkatyavisitD #staytuned #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
ch 12.14: Dmitry speaks up #heswearshedidntdoit #thejurydeliberates #guilty #omgwemadeittotheepilogue #itsamiracle #staytuned #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
In my defense, I chose this pic before I realized the epilogue had three parts π
so-soWhat even was that?
I got to the epilogue and decided to finish. I was surprised to see even the epilogue had three chapters π€£
One star for the book and five stars for the company. #HashtagBrigade #TheBros
@BarkingMadRead if I had known you in high school I would have had better grades in English class. Honestly I don‘t know how you do it every day. @Aimeesue I really hope you publish a book of your hilarious scenes.
B12C13
Here the orator was interrupted by clapping that was uncontainable and almost frenzied. Of course, not all the chamber applauded, but all the same a half of the chamber applauded. The fathers and mothers applauded. From above, where the ladies sat, came shrieks and cries. Handkerchiefs were waved. The chairman began with all his might to ring the bell.
#MatryoshkaBros
ch 12.13: what makes a father a father? #nobodyhereknows #idontknowifthisspeechhelped #staytuned #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
pickI did it! While there were chapters that I did not understand the significance of, I overall liked this novel. I know, unpopular opinion! Dostoevsky examines good versus evil, religious ideology, love and hate, and family. There are the struggles to conform to a given mindset, to break away from familial ideals, to resist temptation. Dostoevsky longwindedly dissects religion - what is belief, what does it mean to follow the church, and, through β¬οΈ
B12C12
"But above all, above all I am troubled, driven out of myself by the thought that of all the mass of facts that the prosecution has heaped on the defendant, there is not a single one that is in any way precise or irrefutable, and that the unhappy man is going to perish solely on account of the combined weight of those facts."
#MatryoshkaBros
ch 12.12: it‘s gotta be Smerdy #didimentionthisguyisgood #whatwilltheverdictbe #guiltyorinnocent #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
panI don‘t know if I have ever been more relieved to reach the last page of a novel! Truly, if it had not been for the dogged perseverance of @BarkingMadRead and others who offered hashtags that assured me I was not alone in this crazed wasteland of #blahblahblah, I would neverβI repeat neverβhave finished this. Honestly, I enjoyed the last 300 pages more than the first 500βagain, a sentence I hope never to write again. My expectations were highβ¦
ch 12.11: the facts of the case #thisguyisgood #istillwonderaboutthatmoneythough #staytuned #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
B12C11
By a computation of time it was proven that the defendant, having run out of the kitchenβ¦was in the constant company of others, and so could not have divided the three thousand and hidden it somewhere in the town. It was this that that formed the grounds for the prosecutor‘s assumption that the money was hidden in some cleft or crevice in Mokroye. Why, might it not indeed be in the dungeons of the castle of Udolpho?
#MatryoshkaBros
B12C10
But psychology,though it is a deep thing, resembles a stick with two ends‘β¦But here is an example.The defendant, running away at night, climbs the fence and casts down by a blow from a brass pestle the lackey who has seized him by the leg. Thereupon he immediately leaps back into the garden and spends an entire five minutes troubling himself over the man whom he has cast down, to find out whether he has killed him or not.
#MatryoshkaBros
Did I forget to post yesterday?!?
ch 12.10: and now the defense #imthroughwiththisguy #dispelalltheprosecutorscrap #butwillithelp #shortchapter #hallelujah #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
B12C9
Much frenzy, wild Karamazovian unrestraint and emotionalityβ & also something more, something that clamours in the heart; that something is conscience, its terrible gnawings! But the pistol is the only way out β I do not know whether Karamazov thought about βwhat will be thereβ, and is Karamazov capable of thinking, in Hamletian style, about what will be there? No,other lands have Hamlets, but ours has only Karamazovs!‘
#MatryoshkaBros
panFreud βThe most magnificent novel ever writtenβ
Me βThere has NEVER been a novel more filled with blah, blah, blah than this! The least murdery murder mystery EVER written. Absolutely boring and painful to read!β
I finished it.
Thank god for the #hashtagbrigade @BarkingMadRead and #dioramaqueen @Aimeesue I finished a week early cuz I just can‘t anymore #peaceout
B12C8
βbut others, too, have testified to the same thing: the defendant himself, his brother and even the manservant Grigory, all those who might be expected to have known him most intimately. In addition to his being dispirited by the falling sickness, Smerdyakov was βcowardly as a henβ. βHe fell at my feet and kissed them,β the defendant informed us, βhe is a hen with the falling sicknessβ
#MatryoshkaBros
so-soHaving gotten through MIDDLEMARCH, ANNA KARENINA--even WAR AND PEACE, I was never so happy to reach 100% on my Kindle. As a former high school English teacher, the one thing I stressed to students over and over when writing was to SHOW and not TELL. Oh, does this novel have too much telling. It's brilliant in parts and overall a compelling story, yet, all that remains in my head is #blahblahblah. Couldn't have finished without the #hashtagbrigade.
panI get it, it‘s theatrical, the personalities of the bros because of Fyodor‘s influence on them, the reader & narrator are sharing a joke about how over the top it all is. But I didn‘t like it. I read for entertainment, I was not consistently entertained-I was consistently frustrated
I will let the public‘s view on the prosecutors speech sum up my feelings. βBut that was all rubbishβ βthere were some vague spotsβ βgot a bit carried awayβ
ch 12.9: more of the same π #atleastheisdone #timeforthedefense #verylongwinded #blahblahblah #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
panI finished this yesterday on my drive because I knew I‘d have a busy weekend with family and didn‘t want to drag it into April. I didn‘t enjoy it, and I probably wouldn‘t have finished it without the #HashtagBrigade. I had a hard time staying focused on many chapters and just didn‘t care what was happening or being discussed. Maybe I‘d get more from it at a different time, but I‘m probably not going to try again.
#TheBros #audiobook #1001books
Thanks to @BarkingMadRead for keeping us on track with this #chunkster. Interesting but I was like WTF am I reading. ππ€£π. Book 63/100 of the year.
#hashtagbrigade
pickThe chicken really wanted to be in the shot. π
This novel tried my patience but ultimately was a rewarding read. Very Russian and histrionic at times; indulgent in the way of many European 19th century novels with its digressions. A story about four brothers and their awful father, but also a long winded treatise on morality and how to live righteously in an imperfect world.
#TheBros #HashtagBrigade #Pemberlittens
I couldn‘t stand the thought of more Dostoyevsky in April, so I rushed through the ending today. The past month has been a lot of skipping days and then skimming to catch up as I‘ve gotten increasingly impatient with The Bros and our long winded narrator. Still, this has been lingering on my TBR for 20 years and I‘m super grateful to @BarkingMadRead and the #hashtagbrigade for getting me to finally read it!
ch 12.8: this guy is irritating me! #ishethelawyerorawitness #blahblahblah #somanytheories #solittletime #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
B12C7
And indeed, behind this letter there lies a programme and premeditation. It is known to us that two whole days before the execution of his terrible design, the defendant declared that if he did not obtain the money he would kill his father & take the money from under his pillow βif only Ivan has gone awayβ. Here it was all considered β and what do we see: the whole thing was subsequently executed as if out of a book!
#MayryoshkaBros
Holy heck, I finished it! π³ could not have done this without the #hashtagbrigade behind me!!
πPOPβ¦ written by formerly incarcerated person
π #52bookclub2024 β¦ character driven
π #readaway2024 #mounttbr 20
Thursday ch 12.7: the whole book summed up in 5 pages π #notlookinggoodforourboy #staytuned #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
B12C6
Ippolit Kirillovich began his speech for the prosecution feeling chill and fever by turns in all his body. He later described it thus. He considered this speech the chef d‘oeuvre of his entire life, his swansong. To be sure, nine months later he died of an acute consumption, and had he had an early premonition of his end, he really would with justification have been able to compare himself to a swan singing its final song.
#MatryoshkaBros
ch 12.6: what is this guy even talking about? #icanteven #talksomesense #ladiesandgentlemenofthejjjjjury #thebros #hashtagbrigade #pemberlittens
B12C5
She betrayed Mitya, but also betrayed herself! And, it goes without saying, no sooner had she succeeded in speaking her mind than the tension snapped and she was crushed by shame. Again her hysterics began, and she fell down, sobbing and screaming. She was carried out. At the moment she was carried out, with a howl Grushenka rushed towards Mitya from her place before anyone could manage to restrain her.
#MatryoshkaBros
